Jerusalem embassy issue 'excuse' to riot, kill

Gaza

Hamas, establishment media and many nations are blaming Israel and President Trump's decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem for the scores of deaths on the Gaza border this week.

But a terrorism expert who grew up in the region says the embassy is just an excuse. Radical groups are looking for any reason to paint Israel as the villain, and the media are perfectly willing to oblige.

For days, establishment media outlets have shown side-by-side images of the ceremony opening the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. While critics of Trump and Israel have contended the loss of life was inevitable if the embassy were to be moved, Act for America President Brigitte Gabriel contends there's no real connection.

"Palestinians use any excuse to riot against Israel. As a matter of fact, these riots have been building up for weeks to culminate today – in what is celebrated across the Islamic world as the 'Day of Catastrophe,'" said Gabriel.

"So what is the catastrophe that they are celebrating, that they dedicate a day to remember every single year? The establishment of the state of Israel. This Palestinian rioting is about hatred. It's not about us moving our Embassy or the occupied territories," she added.

Gabriel, the author of "They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It," also pushed back on the widespread reporting that the Palestinian demonstrators were peaceful or "mostly peaceful."

"It is not peaceful at all. I have seen background footage of Hamas rallying up their people to come to the border. They are showing up at the border with Molotov cocktails, even launching kites to help them set fire to the Israeli farms," said Gabriel.

Among the dozens of Palestinians killed in the fighting was an 8-month-old baby, whose lifeless image has been broadcast around the world as evidence of Israeli repression. Gabriel says there's much more to the story.

"Why would a mother bring an 8-month-old child where Molotov cocktails are being launched? Why are they doing that? They're doing it because Hamas is willing to sacrifice the lives of its own children in order to get worldwide publicity against Israel," she said.

Gabriel said that sort of thing is rarely, if ever, reported in the mainstream media. She explained it's because of a combination of Arabs and Palestinians rewriting history and feeding the misinformation to reporters and scholars who are largely alumni of institutions with a strong bias against Israel.

"Our universities have been influencing young minds because of all the money from the Middle East pouring into Middle East study departments and political science departments and appointing Arab professors who are anti-Israel and anti-America to basically brainwash the students," said Gabriel.

Gabriel also asserts that giving up land does not lead to peace for Israel. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew Israel from Gaza in 2005. Subsequent elections placed Hamas in charge. The Palestinian people live in squalor while Hamas officials live in sprawling mansions on the Mediterranean coast and hire their family members to high-ranking positions at very generous salaries. Much of the rest goes to purchasing weapons and training fighters.

In addition, Hamas destroyed the very lucrative flower and greenery industry deliberately left behind by Israel to provide an economic boost in Gaza.

"They gave all that to the Palestinians. A businessman in New York gave $14 million so the Palestinians could start immediately in Gaza with an industry. Within 24 hours, Hamas in Gaza destroyed the greenhouses to the point they broke down the copper pipes and took them home. This is self-destruction," said Gabriel.

And she says that as long as the hatred for Israel rages, there will be no change in the region.

"The Arabs and the Palestinians cannot tolerate Israel in the Middle East and that's what's driving the hatred," she said.

"Until the Palestinians learn to love their children more than they hate the Jews, that's when we'll have peace in the Middle East," said Gabriel.